Hydro had 21,566 permanent employees at the end of 2012, a decrease from 22,813 in 2011. In addition, we had 1,161 temporary employees compared to 1,368 the year before. Contractor employees represented about 8,200 full-time equivalents during 2012, down from 8,900 in 2011. The decrease in employees last year was mainly due to closure of the production at the Kurri Kurri smelter in Australia and other restructuring measures across the company. We have the highest number of employees in Brazil, followed by Germany and Norway. The planned merger between Hydro's Extruded Products and Sapa will directly affect almost 10,000 Hydro employees. The integration planning process has started.
Hydro's people strategy is built on five pillars: our performance culture, competence management, leadership pipeline, diversity, and mobility. In 2013 we will mainly concentrate on revitalizing our leadership development and appraisal dialogue system, and initiating the implementation of a company-wide diversity program (see below).
We see the importance of maintaining our position as an attractive employer. New employees are offered essential training to better understand the organization and their work tasks and to gain the required competence within health, security, safety and environment. By the end of 2012 more than 95 percent of the employees in our Bauxite & Alumina operations in Brazil (acquired 2011) had been through the Hydro Fundamentals program to be introduced to Hydro's values, social responsibility, value chain and HSE requirements.
We emphasize diversity with regard to nationality, culture, gender and educational background when recruiting and when forming management teams and other working groups. While 87 percent of top management are Norwegian or German, only 38 percent of Hydro's employees are the same. Women are represented in the board of directors, the corporate management board and in most business area management teams. We are aiming at further diversity at all levels and launched a diversity awareness program for our global organization in 2012. Implementation will continue in 2013.
In 2012, 15 percent of Hydro's employees globally were women, compared to 14 percent in 2011. Eleven percent of the employees in Brazil and Germany are women, compared with 19 percent in Norway, 18 percent in the U.S., 16 percent in France and 8 percent in Italy. These countries are the ones where Hydro has most employees. Almost 240 new employees were recruited in Norway, Germany, Italy and Slovakia in 2012, of which 23 percent were women. In Norway, we recruited in total 98 employees in 2012, compared to 80 in 2011. Of these, 28 percent were women, compared to 19 percent in 2011. Almost half of the new employees in Norway with a Master's degree were women.
We are continually adjusting working conditions so that all employees have the same opportunities, regardless of disabilities.
All employees shall be secured a total salary that is fair, competitive and in accordance with the local industry standard. Only relevant qualifications such as performance, education, experience and other professional criteria shall be taken into account when making appointments, or when providing training, settling remuneration and awarding promotion. There are no significant gender-pay differentials for employees earning collectively-negotiated wages in Norway. Salary conditions in the Norwegian business are reviewed on a regular basis. No significant gender-related differences were found in 2012. If significant differences are found at any level, we have a tradition for closing the gaps within a short time.
The annual bonus of Hydro executives shall reflect achievements in relation to pre-defined financial targets, achievements of operational and organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) including targets relating to safety and environment (HSE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR), and compliance with and the promotion of Hydro's core values (The Hydro Way). See Note 10 and 11 to the consolidated financial statements for more information.
In a challenging macroeconomic landscape, the board of directors would like to give tribute to Hydro's employees for their invaluable will and ability to continuously striving to improve Hydro operations across the world.
